Deliverance


"The Lord is good, a strong refuge when trouble comes. He is close to those who trust in him.  Nahum 1:7

"He's stuck!!" shouted one of the guys. Our little afternoon spelunking adventure had just taken an unwanted turn. One of our guys had gotten wedged between two rock outcroppings. All the pushing and pulling we could muster failed to liberate him. Fear and even panic began to creep into our bones. Nudged by the Holy Spirit to pray, we cried to God who mercifully directed us to a different ledge that provided just the leverage we needed to get him out. 

Nahum lived among a beaten down and discouraged group of people. The Assyrians, specifically those in the powerful city of Nineveh, had traumatized and brutalized the people of Israel over and over again. No end was in sight. Nahum came to tell them that the oppression they lived under was coming to an end. God told them, "I will break the yoke of bondage from your neck and tear off the chains of oppression." Freedom and deliverance were on the way!

For many of us, those words seem way to good to be true. Freedom. Deliverance. The bondage in our lives is so deeply rooted, it's not even possible for us to postulate a reality different than the one we are in right now. We have been beaten down with lies and failure far too long. Here, Nahum encourages the people and us not to try harder to create a different reality, but to fully abandon ourselves into the goodness and nearness of a loving God. A God who passionately fights for his people.

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